


Family Ties

by glorysong



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Bisexual Steve Harrington, Child Neglect, Coming Out, Cute Eleven | Jane Hopper, Gay Billy Hargrove, Good Babysitter Steve Harrington, M/M, Parental Jim "Chief" Hopper, Period-Typical Homophobia, Steve Harrington Needs a Hug, cursing?? thats all the bad really
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-14
Updated: 2019-07-14
Packaged: 2020-06-27 14:06:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19792453
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glorysong/pseuds/glorysong
Summary: Hopper starts to wonder why Steve likes babysitting the kids so much, and finds out the sad truth.-On Steve's eleventh birthday, he's left with a sum of money and an empty house.





	Family Ties

**Author's Note:**

> hi im sad n tired today

The first time Steve came to the cabin, it was because Hopper had called him. The chief would be out of town for a night for some conference, and didn't want to leave El alone in the house. The teen hadn't hesitated at all to say yes to watching the kid, and even asked what snacks she liked so he could pick some up on the way over. As Hopper was told by El the next day, Steve brought over a movie for them to watch and two bags of sweets, and taught her how to play poker with a new poker set he had bought for her. She said he let her make him 'pretty' by painting his nails a bright pink and doing his hair and makeup. El gushed about how fun it was to hang out with Steve for three weeks before Hopper suggested he could come over and watch El and Will while Joyce and him went on a weekend away to celebrate their three month anniversary. 

Steve, after El had told him how much of a mess Hopper was, came twenty five minutes early with a bottle of hair spray and a wide toothed comb. 

-

Steve knocked on Hopper's door, which creaked open a few inches, revealing the man inside. The chief was wearing a pair of poorly ironed khakis, a bright coloured shirt that looked strangely like one El bought at _The Gap_ tucked in in the worst way, emphasizing the man's slight beer belly. 

"Aw, man, chief... I don't know where to start with ya." Steve pushed the door in more, the plastic bag hitting the door frame as he entered. 

"Jesus kid, that's nice." Hopper looked at himself in the mirror. "It's not that bad." 

" _Not that bad_. Man, I'd be just _thrilled_ to be Ms. Byers right now, having her anniversary with a guy who looks 'not that bad.'" Steve put the bag down on Hopper's dresser, the peeling wood cutting through the plastic. Hopper just looked at him. "Well, I'm not a hip teenager, kid."

"Yeah, I know that, but look at yourself." Steve walked right up to him and touched the shirt he was wearing. "This looks like your kid would wear it. Do you have anything that's just a solid light blue? And an ironing board?" Hopper's eyebrows rose, and he nodded. "Okay, I'll iron your pants properly while you change shirts." When Hopper didn't move immediately, Steve nudged his shoulder with the back of his hand, "C'mon, you have a hot date in twenty minutes." 

Hopper led Steve to the ironing board, who carefully ironed the creases out of the khakis by the time Hopper was ready to put them back on. Steve showed him how to tuck in his shirt so he didn't have a muffin top, but Hopper wouldn't let him get near his hair with the half empty _Farrah Fawcett_ hair spray he had brought. By the time Joyce was knocking on the door, Hopper was fully ready for his date. Hopper didn't miss the soft smile Steve had on his face as the kids hugged each of them goodbye for the weekend.

-

Steve had somehow become a fixture in his house, and Jim didn't really know what to think about that. On one hand, the kid was impossibly nice and respectful, and kept the kids in line while still being friendly to them. On the other hand, having another person in the house was odd, as El more often then not now had not only Steve with her, but both Max and her older brother, who Hopper had just tagged 'Steve's Friend'. He didn't really have any issues with it though, as the Harrington kid liked to cook, and him and his friend never really made a fuss in the tiny kitchen. Steve was there to drop El off at home after school, or when all of her friends were hanging out, and he brought over Max and his friend to watch a movie once a week. 

In a weird way, he was watching an eighteen year old boy parent his kid, but after everything everyone had been through, Jim guessed that Steve probably needed the others around just as much as they did.

-

The first thing that really concerned Jim was Christmas. Joyce was more than happy to host every one at her house on the 21st, leaving time for the various family events that were to be happening up to and past the 25th. Steve, his friend (that Hopper now recognized as Billy), Max, and El all arrived before him, as his shift ended at seven that night. Steve and Billy were wearing matching sweaters that Hopper had watched Max and El make a week before, with Steve's saying "I've been nice" and Billy's saying "I've been naughty." They stood beside the door frame to the living room from the kitchen, Steve leaning on the wall. 

Jim had been helping Joyce in the kitchen, not at all trying to over hear the conversation between the boys, but it happened anyway. 

Billy's voice was softer than he had ever heard the kid's voice before. "So did you end up getting it?"

"Yeah, it wasn't cheap, but Christmas in Chicago will be fun." Jim could hear the smile in Steve's voice.

Steve had told Hopper that him and his parents had Christmas at the house of his aunt just outside of Hawkins. That they had a tradition of hanging up the lights on the tree on Christmas Eve, and that he would be sleeping over for a few nights. 

-

On the 23rd, Hopper drove by the Harrington's just to see a dark house and a blue Camaro parked in the drive way.

-

He didn't know what the kid was hiding, but Hopper was sure it was something big. Every time one of the kids mentioned Steve's family, he would end up changing the subject pretty quickly. On February 13th, Hopper found out something pretty major about Steve. 

Yet again, Joyce had decided to host an event at her house, this time being a "day before Valentine's" celebration. Most of the kids were sat around the T.V., watching the copy of _Footloose_ Steve had brought to the party when Hopper realized that El and Mike had buggered off somewhere. Blood turning hot, Hopper went off to find the two around the house. When the bathroom door was locked, Dustin yelling behind it, and he couldn't find them inside, he decided that Eleven and Mike must have gone outside, in the cold weather. 

Hopper flung open the back door, ready to yell at Mike for corrupting his daughter, but he found a much different situation. Steve and Billy were pressed together, Billy's hands on Steve's ass and Steve's on either side of Billy's face, the boys locked in a kiss. When the door hit against the house, they flew apart, both bright red from being caught. Jim stood there, speechless for a moment, but before he could say anything, Billy roughly grabbed his collar, and quickly started walking with Hopper in tow. When they were far out of earshot, Hopper pushed the kid's hand off him.

"Chief, you don't understand -" Billy sounded out of breath, out of anger. Fear was visible in his eyes.

"I... I didn't know that Steve is a f- is gay." Jim was able to correct his own words before he said something terrible.

"He's not full... gay. Only half. He likes both. Chief... don't say anything to him if you can't support him. He looks up to you. A lot." Jim looked back to where Steve was, the teen being held in Nancy's arms as he shook. He couldn't hear it, but he was pretty sure he was crying. 

Jim nodded, and walked back towards the house. Billy stood back, lighting a cigarette. Nancy looked up at him when Jim was close enough. He nodded, and she slowly slipped Steve out of her arms, and walked back into the house. 

"Kid, c'mere." Hopper hugged Steve close to his body. The boy shook in his arms, face red and wet. Steve's thin arms lay down at his side before they slowly wrapped around to hug him back. Steve choked back a sob, an ugly sound from deep in his chest. Hopper began to rub his back, which began Steve's string of muttered "I'm sorry"es. Hopper shook his head. 

"Don't you ever apologize for who you are, son." 

-

Hopper didn't say anything if the next day he opened the door to find a thank you note in an unfamiliar hand writing and a world's best dad mug on his front porch.

-

Hopper finally put all the pieces together on Steve's birthday. Eleven had insisted they host the party at the cabin, despite it being smaller than Joyce's house, and smaller than Steve's. He was turning nineteen on April twentieth, so they had planned the birthday party a night before, as Joyce was assuming that his parents would be taking him out to a nice dinner on his actual birthday. 

While Dustin and Will set up a Polaroid photo booth, Billy, Max, and Eleven had taken up the kitchen to all decorate the cake together. Joyce was helping Lucas and Mike decorate the walls with streamers, and Jonathan and Nancy blew up balloons. Hopper walked into the small kitchen, the room cramped from the amount of people in it. He grabbed a beer for himself from the fridge, and popped the lid off using a magnet opener stuck to the side of it.

Max was sitting on the counter sticking M&Ms to the side of the cake where Billy had somewhat smoothly spread icing. El stood slightly off to the side as she mixed food colouring with icing in small bowls to make a blue to pink gradient on the top of his cake. Hopper cleared his throat.

"So, Billy, what are you and Steve going to do for his birthday?" Billy looked up at him from the cake, a loose, honest smile on his lips. 

"We leave tomorrow for a nine day trip to California. Some buddies of mine are out of town so we have their beach house." Hopper whistled.

"Nice. Won't his parents have an issue with him being gone that long for his birthday?" All of the children in the room stilled. 

"Uh... I don't think so?"

Confusion crossed Hopper's face, and he went to say something, but El's small hand reached his wrist, and she shook her head tightly. 

-

Hopper didn't want to confront the kid, but two weeks later, he was asleep on Hopper's living room couch after baby sitting the kids. Steve seemed to sleep anywhere but his home.

-

Jim stood outside the Harrington's home, wondering how to start this conversation before he knocked. He finally sighed, he'd wing it, like most other things. He rapped twice on the door, and before long, he could hear the heavy, rushed footsteps of the boy running to the door. Steve quickly opened the door, looking out of breath. "Hopper?" He crouched down a little, and Jim noticed that he was wearing an oversize Metallica shirt and a pair of _Looney Tunes_ pajama bottoms. 

"Can I come in?" Hopper tried to stay as level headed as he could, but just from what he could see, the house didn't have any adults living in it. There were open cans of New Coke on multiple tables, and the couch had more than one blankets on it, all thrown on in random ways. The hardwood looked like it hadn't been swept in a while. 

"Uh... yeah. Yeah, of course!" Steve stepped aside to let Jim in, who motioned to the couch for him to sit. The house was fairly neat, but not all that clean. There were no dirty dishes, but the dish rack looked like it hadn't been put away in weeks. The living room table had no clutter, but a thin layer of dust everywhere but about four feet in the middle, no doubt where feet would be put up.

Steve sat down on one side of the couch, looking up at him as Hopper stood by the other side. 

"Kid, where are your parents?" Hopper rubbed his face as Steve looked away, nodding.

"Uh, yeah, they're out on some business trip." 

"No kid, I mean _where are your parents?_ " Steve shook his head slightly and shrugged.

"I haven't actually seen them since... God, since I was eleven." Steve's voice sounded so small as he said that, and Hopper sat down on the other end of the couch.

"What do you mean?"

"I had nannies growing up and uh, when I was ten they started showing me how to do things like laundry and dishes, and when I was eleven I was left alone. I mean, they send me money every other week, but that's all I hear from them." Steve's voice was catching, as though he was close to tears.

"So you've just... been alone?" Hopper moved closer to him, and Steve nodded nearly his whole body.

"When I was in high school, I would throw parties so it didn't seem so quiet. Now Billy comes over most nights, or I end up at Robin's, or sleeping at one of the kid's if I'm watching them. The house just feels so empty. Like... the life I was supposed to have for them, without them. My parents, I mean." Hopper wrapped an arm around the boy, who wiped off slow tears as they came.

-

Two days later, Hopper watched Billy and Steve bicker about carrying boxes into the cabin, all of Steve's belongings fitting into seven neat boxes to go to Hopper's home office, now turned into a spare room. Steve sighed and gave up, letting Billy carry two as he carried one, the last box to bring. Steve placed the box on his bed, and walked up to Hopper. 

"Welcome home, son."

**Author's Note:**

> im fueled by comments, kudos, and monster energy drinks so if you can leave any one of those that would be sick
> 
> Follow my Instagram @gorysong (not glorysong)


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